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Saturday, May 1, 2010

WELCOME TO HARMONY will be out June 1, 2010 and I can’t wait. Once in a while a book comes along that feels like magic from the day I begin writing. I’ve always loved writing stories about small towns and Harmony, Texas is like the town we all wish we were from.

I open with Reagan, a runaway, being dropped off after dark on the Main Street. Before the night is over, she’s stepped into a world she’s never known. A world where she can belong.
As I wrote it seemed like my characters came to me one at a time, sat down, and began to tell me their story. As the book moves through the weeks, you’ll meet a funeral director who cares about everyone he meets, a volunteer fire chief who loves what he does, a sheriff who fights every day to live up to her family, and a child who sees people for who they really are.

This story will touch your heart and make you laugh. By the time you finish, you’ll feel like Harmony is a real place.
I’ll be writing three books set in Harmony and hope you’ll come along with me on the journey. I know your time as a mom is limited with a thousand things always waiting, but when you have a few minutes, step into Harmony. I promise I’ll take you on an adventure.

Wishing you love and laughter,

Jodi Thomas

About the book:
WELCOME TO HARMONY takes readers to the small town of Harmony, Texas. Harmony was founded by three families—the McAllens, Mathesons and Trumans—and the descendants of those families still live there today, sometimes happily, sometimes not. It’s a town where the relationships are old, often complicated and never dull. This small town life appeals to sixteen-year-old runaway Reagan and she hopes, even if only for a time, that she can borrow Harmony as her home and gruff, stern Jeremiah Truman as her uncle.

Sheriff Alexandra McAllen and volunteer fire chief Hank Matheson have lived in Harmony their whole lives and are both inextricably drawn together and pushed apart by the tragic death of former sheriff Warren McAllen, Alex’s brother and Hank’s best friend. When a string of prairie fires threaten Harmony, Alex and Hank have to work together to protect the town and finally have to face the undeniable attraction between them.

I had the chance to email Jodi Thomas and ask her a few questions. Here is what I asked her:

1. How long does a typical book take to write? My first one took me two years but now I’m putting one out every six months. Each book takes about a year to 18 months, but I work on more than one at a time. The first six months I usually do research, then a few months of thinking, then once I begin writing it moves along fast. I climb into the book and just run with the story.

2. Who inspires your characters in your books?I’ve always loved people, but, in truth, I never write a person I know in a story. I may take a characteristic from someone I know or a habit. Most of the time I meet my characters the same way I meet people. As I move through the story I get to know them better and they come alive.

3. How long have you been writing?Writing comes on a little at a time. First you’re jotting down bits of stories in the back of a book or on the church program and then you’re writing a few nights a week. Suddenly the story grows and you’ve become a writer. I started somewhere in the 80’s, got serious in the 90’s. I’ve been selling for twenty years. WELCOME TO HARMONY is my 29th book and I think it is the best one I’ve ever written.

4. After this newest series, what can readers expect from you? I’m not sure. I know Harmony will run for three books. The fourth one is peeking around the corner wanting me to start researching it. Whatever I write, I believe it will still follow the small town theme.

About the Author:

A proud, fifth generation Texan, Jodi Thomas chooses to set most of her novels in her home state. She is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author as well as a member of the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame. Thomas currently serves as a Writer in Residence at the West Texas A&M University campus. She lives in Amarillo , TX . You can visit her on the web at http://www.jodithomas.com/.What is being said about Jodi Thomas:
Thomas has focused on writing Western historical romances—to much success—for the majority of her career. Most recently her novel The Lone Texan (October 2009) received the Best Western Romance of 2009 Award from Love Western Romances. Debbie Macomber called Thomas’s novel Twisted Creek “compelling and beautifully written” and Publishers Weekly said “…Thomas sketches a slow, sweet surrender, keeping the tension building to a rewarding resolution in this unsentimental, homespun romance.”

WELCOME TO HARMONY will be available June 2010 and can be purchased for $7.99.

I received a copy of Welcome to Harmony to review. I will be posting my review in a few days after I have completed reading it.

***Disclaimer*** I was not paid for this post. I was given a free copy for review purposes. Thank you to Jodi Thomas for answering my questions, and to the PR company for sending me the book copy. I was given the opportunity to review this product because of my membership at The Product Review Place.